A man, a barge, a bucket and the struggle to get derelict vessels off the Columbia River

View full sizeBrent Wojahn, The OregonianDavid Harris has monitored Barge 202 since early August, and says he's bailed frequently to help keep the derelict vessel afloat.

LYLE, WASH. -- Standing on the cockeyed deck of Barge 202 gives you a full appreciation of the term "derelict vessel." Rust covers every inch. Metal flakes crunch underfoot. Huge slices of steel have vanished from the sides perilously close to the waterline, lost to an aborted scrap job.

As wind surfers dart by, big Columbia River breakers pound the ragged barge, splashing water into holds that are supposed to be dry.

In recent weeks, David Harris has grown familiar with this partially floating heap. Out of work as a construction contractor, he saw it listing near the Washington shore, grabbed his two-man canoe and 5-gallon bucket, climbed aboard and started bailing.

He's moved a barbecue, a mattress and an electric pump on board, living for days on board, monitoring leaks and bailing when necessary.

Harris figures his risky salvage gives him rights of ownership to Barge 202 under maritime law -- and to its roughly $75,000 worth of scrap steel. He's trying to convince the government to help him bring the ship to shore to dismantle. If not, it will sink, he predicts, once heavy rains and rougher water kick up soon.

He's not having much luck.

"Nobody's interested in solving this issue at all," Harris said from the boat on Sunday, a day after police delivered a notice from the Coast Guard strictly instructing him not to move the 250-ton barge on his own. "They're basically just trying to get me to walk away from this thing, and I'm not going to do that."

Vigilance over the Northwest's substantial stock of neglected vessels has spiked since January, when the rusty, oil-filled barge Davy Crockett cracked in half off Washougal, polluting the Columbia and eventually costing $20 million to clean up.

An alphabet soup of agencies -- the Coast Guard, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Environmental Protection Agency and various state regulators -- has established a task force to inventory and monitor a growing list of 30 such large vessels across the Northwest: Old military ships, stranded sternwheelers, broken-down tugs and dilapidated barges.

The number of those vessels is likely to rise, regulators say, in part because a ban on exporting ships for scrap has cut options for owners.

But there are big loopholes in the law, foggy regulatory authority and a lack of money to get rusting hulks out of the water. No one but ship owners, at times broke or absentee, is legally responsible for getting vessels aground.

"Barge 202 is the poster child because it has hit all of these legislative gaps," said Randy Clark, a security specialist for Coast Guard Sector Columbia River. "It's kind of a crazy situation."

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The barge floated into the news in July, when it broke loose from its moorings in Dallesport, Wash., and into the Columbia shipping channel. The Corps hired a contractor to grab it and anchor it near the shore.

Bret Simpson, a scrap dealer from Ellensburg, Wash., may have been the guy scrapping Barge 202 in Dallesport -- regulators say he also scrapped the Davy Crockett, a converted World War II Liberty ship, before it split open.

Washington's Department of Natural Resources, which owns the submerged lands where Barge 202 is anchored, sent notices to Simpson and JS & SW Inc., a Seattle-based company also believed to be involved with the ship.

View full sizeScott Learn, The OregonianDavid Harris says he's slept many nights on Barge 202, bailing water to keep the ship afloat.

Kristin Swenddal, Washington's division manager for aquatic resources, said legal owners are responsible for derelict ships. The state can charge lease costs and extra fees to an owner who walks away from a vessel.

But it doesn't have the money to remove the barge itself, she said, even if it could sink.

"We're hoping the legal owners will step forward and try to do that right thing," Swenddal said.

Here's the rub: Ownership of Barge 202, as with many derelict vessels, is murky. Under maritime law a vessel without cargo and no means of propulsion doesn't have to be registered, Clark said.

Simpson couldn't be reached for comment -- one number was disconnected and the Department of Natural Resources doesn't have contact information for him. It's also doubtful he could cover salvage costs -- he filed for bankruptcy in 2008, court records show, listing monthly income of less than $3,000 and $1.6 million in debt.

Paul Seo, a commodities broker and one of two contacts the state lists for JS & SW, said he has "no ownership interest whatsoever."

"I am just a party trying to make money in the scrap business," Seo said. "I've been through hell, agency after agency. I just totally gave up on this."

The Corps' role stops once the federal navigation channel is safe, spokesman Scott Clemans said.

"Beyond that, it's not on our property and we don't have as far as I know any legal authorities or responsibilities," he said.

The Coast Guard's authority requires a threat to navigation or an immediate threat of pollution. Aside from possible asbestos, Barge 202 doesn't fit either of those bills, Clark said.

Washington and Oregon programs remove derelict vessels of 100 feet or less. But Barge 202, possibly a converted World War II-era tank carrier, is double that. The two states and the EPA can extract pollution from stranded ships, but they don't have separate funds to remove big vessels.

Scott Smith,of Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality, said derelict vessels can hold surprising amounts of pollution even after fuel is drained, including copper wiring that can interfere with salmon spawning, lead paint and PCBs.

The bottom line: Outside of owners, Smith said, it's "nobody's responsibility" to get a ship off the water if it's not a hazard to navigation or an imminent pollution threat.

"Once we've exhausted every ownership possibility, we just don't have the funding to do anything, especially with something this large."

The 42-year-old was studying up on maritime law, with plans to head for Alaska and recover boats that had run aground. Then driving down Washington 14, he spotted Barge 202 just offshore.

"It played right into what I was thinking," he said.

Harris grew up in Lyle, population roughly 500. He rounded up a crew of helpers, many badly in need of work. He snagged permission from the Yakama Nation Land Enterprise to use an old ferry landing on Lyle's east end to dismantle the ship. He cleared blackberries and established dead weights -- burying a big tree stump, setting secured rock piles along the shore -- to hold the barge.

His plan was to float the ship about a mile downstream on a calm day, using the prevailing current, a couple of small fishing boats, a larger boat and a wave runner to keep it on track. He toted 10,000 pounds of rock aboard the barge, wrapping it in mesh to serve as an emergency anchor.

Harris's work has included shoring up old barns and logging in Alaska.

"I've done a lot of challenging things in my life," he said. "I don't think this is beyond me."

The barge is relatively free of pollution, regulators say, but Harris thinks the bags of trash aboard contain asbestos -- common in older ships.

He declined EPA requests to board and test the torn bags full of refuse on the ship. Jeff Rodin, an EPA on-scene coordinator, said Harris was worried about the hazard, legal liability and the potential bill. Harris said he's happy to allow testing once the ship is on shore.

In recent days, the Yakama pulled permission to use the tribal site, and the Coast Guard clamped down. The barge could easily get away from Harris, said Clark of the Coast Guard, with Bonneville Dam not far downstream.

"Honestly, (Harris's involvement) could be a solution," Clark said. "But let's do it the right way, rather than everybody getting surprised by it."

The derelict vessel task force is setting priorities for ships to inspect and identifying legal gaps.

But solving the bureaucratic tangle will take time, Clark said. So will the plan that the Coast Guard wants Harris to prepare to transport and dismantle the barge. Harris intends to file an ownership claim, but that could take more than a year to get through the courts.

And the weather will only get worse.

"This end will sink," Harris said on board, pointing to holds filling with water, "this end will stick up, and there it will be, the big and ugly." Wind surfers and fishermen will face a new hazard.

Harris would like someone, in government or otherwise, to help him rent a tug -- going rate, about $3,000 an hour. He says he also needs a dismantling site upstream of Bonneville Dam because the dilapidated ship could sink in the locks, gumming up river traffic.

"I'm all for trying to keep it from sinking," he said. "But I'm not going to spend a winter on this thing."